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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Cryptography I by Stanford University

4.8
stars
4,220 ratings

About the Course

Cryptography is an indispensable tool for protecting information in computer systems. In this course you will learn the inner workings of cryptographic systems and how to correctly use them in real-world applications. The course begins with a detailed discussion of how two parties who have a shared secret key can communicate securely when a powerful adversary eavesdrops and tampers with traffic. We will examine many deployed protocols and analyze mistakes in existing systems. The second half of the course discusses public-key techniques that let two parties generate a shared secret key. Throughout the course participants will be exposed to many exciting open problems in the field and work on fun (optional) programming projects. In a second course (Crypto II) we will cover more advanced cryptographic tasks such as zero-knowledge, privacy mechanisms, and other forms of encryption....

Top reviews

BH

Jan 13, 2020

Provides a comprehensive introduction to cryptographic history, current technology, best practices and known attacker techniques. A great deal of material is covered in a relatively compact program.

BC

Mar 10, 2017

Cutting edge cryptography topics. Good explanations and slides, but pause button is highly recommended. Can be a bit too mathematical for the general public, and not very formal for mathematicians.

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76 - 100 of 872 Reviews for Cryptography I

By Júlio S

Feb 9, 2020

Este curso, ministrado pelo grande professor Dan Boneh, é maravilhoso, para dizer o mínimo. Mostra a teoria didaticamente, de forma a facilitar a matemática do assunto que é bem árida, mas também introduz aspectos práticos importantes para quem milita na área em particular com especificação e desenvolvimento de software. Os exames, para além de simples avaliação do aprendizado, foram ótimas ferramentas para fixar e melhorar o entendimento do conteúdo.

By 林冠廷

Oct 29, 2023

I appreciate what Professor has presented in all the material! The quiz sessions require knowledge from class and also the overall comprehensiveness of the course (though sometimes it is still quite difficult to answer all the questions correctly), and I would suggest that interactive questions inserted in the videos be more in number to ensure that students are still on the same page. A great thank you to both Professor and Coursera platform!

By Глеб Р

Nov 18, 2017

Прекрасно структурированный курс. Практические задания (optional), потребовавшие большого количества времени (почти ничего не доделал до конца, но заниматься было интересно, возможно, займусь позже). Тесты строго по лекциям. В целом, всё понятно.

Иногда языковой барьер слегка мешает (термины запоминаются не с первого раза, приходится пересматривать - названия атак и т.п.). В 1 неделе есть презентации с лекций, по ним проще искать материал.

By James N

Jun 24, 2017

I learned a tremendous amount from this course and it provided the grounding for an array of different areas of infosec studies I am pursuing. I highly recommend it. Many of the ideas were easy and intuitive to grasp, but there is also enough depth that I will likely take the course again at a later date.

The quizzes and projects were thoughtful and challenging, and effectively tested that the student understands the key ideas of material.

By Mark T

Aug 28, 2016

The course was authentically cryptic. Just kidding. Once I listened to Prof. Boneh a few time over, I started to get the idea. asymptotic security while never stated as such played a fundamental role in the security proofs. Professor Boneh augmented the notion of correctness to include immunity from side channel (Power and timing attacks). The course was a great medley of pragmatic advice and theory. I am grateful for this class.

By Ebrahim E

May 24, 2021

A really enjoyable course! It's not shy to get into the theory, but it doesn't go so deep that you lose the forest for the trees. It really strikes the perfect balance. I would recommend it to anyone who is (a) literate in college level mathematics and reasoning about algorithms, (b) wants to start a serious journey into the cryptography world, and (c) doesn't necessarily have any previous experience with cryptography concepts.

By Javier L

Mar 2, 2018

Learning Cryptograpy is not a walk in the park as it requires a good understanding of the theoretical foundations and it is so easy to get wrong, yet it is essential for an IT professional to get a good grasp of the subject. This course is invaluable in that respect, the instructor presents the material in a clear, concise fashion without overwhelming with the math involved, giving the overview you need as a professional.

By Kasun H

Nov 26, 2017

This is one of the best cryptography courses I have seen. Initially, I felt that the course was going faster. So I skipped the course two times after following about two weeks :). But I thought to give another try for the third time. Then I started to get comfortable and understand in time.

I strongly recommend this course to people who are looking to get a better theoretical understanding of cryptographic primitives.

By Ioannis G

Oct 29, 2020

Excellent. Clear and to the point. A great variety of material and Dan is great in explaining everything. Material is wide but not too detailed if not needed, and there are many references to dive deeper if one wants to. It would be great if a Crash Course (specific for Security, e.g. hexing, mapping arrays) in Python would be given for the Programming Exercices, since otherwise it takes too much time to try ideas.

By Adam Z

Apr 4, 2018

A fantastic, university level course on Cryptography, most commonly referred to as the "gold standard". Personally, I found this course to be extremely helpful and assistive to my learning on the subject. However, I think that this course delves too deeply into the theory of cryptography, I think it would prove beneficial if Dan Boneh ran us through more coding examples or specific realistic use-cases.

By Deleted A

Apr 12, 2020

Very interesting course where you learn how to analyze cryptographic constructions. I love the way is taught, building on top of basic constructions until you implement real-world systems. I certainly got interested in cryptography many times, but always dropped the courses before the end. This one got me hooked all the way!. The programming assignments were great to assimilate concepts. Well done!

By Luigi S

Jul 15, 2019

It took to me more than one month and a half to complete this course but it has been a great stimulus to learn fundamental concepts and tools about cryptography. One of the most difficult part has been public-key cryptography mostly due for its base on number theory but now I have a good knowledge of RSA and Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol. I look forward for the 2nd part of the course.

By Mark P

May 5, 2017

Excellent in-depth introduction to the field of Cryptography! Absolutely rigorous treatment of the subject, down to every last mathematical detail. I feel like I sat in on a real university course at Stanford, and I believe this experience will help my work, my employer's products and will allow me to look critically at cryptographic code that comes across my desk. Thanks Prof. Boneh!

By Pierre M

Mar 6, 2018

A truly excellent course. The content is very well done and presented, the problem sets challenging enough and the programming assignments are interesting and really worth completing. Dr Boneh explains all the concepts in a very clear manner and has tons of practical examples to share, which bring to light what can at first sight seem a little abstract. I highly recommend this course.

By Honey S

Oct 11, 2020

Good course !! It introduces cryptography along with security proofs using mathematics. If you do not want mathematics part than this course if not for you.

I enjoyed the way professor proves security concepts of an algorithm using adversaries and challengers. It the changed way how I understand the cryptography algorithms after completing this course, rather than just standard steps.

By Matthew H

Aug 11, 2023

An extensive overview of cryptographic concepts, including an introduction to the number theoretic concepts underpinning the algorithms. The inclusion of cryptographic proofs and discussion of statistical advantage allows you to develop an understanding of what makes a given model secure. Thank you so much, Prof Bohen and Coursera for making this available to the user community.

By Alexey G

Aug 16, 2016

Amazing course and an outstanding teacher. Worth every penny and minute spent on this one. You learn not just how to build secure systems but also how NOT TO, which I consider even more valuable.The material is explained so fluently you have no doubts about professor's outstanding knowledge of it. This doesn't mean it's an easy course, though, so get prepared for some headache :)

By Ovidio M M

Apr 13, 2020

An excellent course to learn the fundamentals of cryptography at a pretty deep level. It includes very well crafted programming assignments and tests. The professor is an expert in the field and very rigorous and precise. The materials are very well crafted and it contains a lot of interesting and useful references for extension. It was quite hard but it was definitely worth it.

By Serikzhan U

Jun 3, 2018

Thanks to Prof. Boneh and the whole Team for this brilliant course, and all the support provided. Although the program was quite challenging, it was very structured and informative, and provided an easy way to learn complex subjects. I'm looking forward to continuing to study cryptography discipline, and I would definitely recommend this course to my friends and colleagues.

By Romain G

Aug 28, 2020

Great course. It describes most commonly used encryption algorithms with fun historical examples. Explanations are given from diverse point of views including cyber attack, data protection and computational efficiency. Assignments are challenging enough for people comfortable with computer sciences, probability and number theory and maybe a bit hard for people who aren't.

By jyoti y

Oct 30, 2017

The course was extremely informative and interesting. I do not possess a computer science background and enrolled in the course just to learn a little about cryptography. While the learning curve was steep, the course content was engrossing that I did not want to stop. Infact, it motivated me to gain more knowledge in the field and I am currently learning programming. :)

By Lior S

Oct 19, 2016

This is a great course that was taught well, and had very helpful mentors. In general I found the course challenging but not too difficult. The reward was a good understanding of the open cryptographic protocols that are used in most real world applications. As minimum prerequisites, I would recommend having done courses in statistics, probability theory and programming.

By Guolong Z

Aug 9, 2023

I learned a lot from this course material. I find it to be an extremely simplified version of the book Applied Cryptography written by Boneh. It's truly a great book, and I will continue with Cryptography II after summarizing this course. Thank you very much for offering this online course through Stanford University. I also want to express my deep appreciation to Dan.

By Mark J

Mar 9, 2022

This course was a great in depth introduction to modern cryptography. I had to learn some new mathematical notation to describe groups and I didn't have the time to complete the optional programming exercises. I believe that I now have a better understanding of the framework which relates one time pads, stream ciphers, block ciphers, and public-private key techniques.

By Amal V

Oct 2, 2016

I took the course in 2014, whether you are a beginner in cryptography or a regular practitioner, the course won't disappoint you. Another master class from Stanford. The problem sets and programming assignments are of reasonable difficulty. So if you are planning to take a course on cryptography, this is just the one- comprehensive and up to the expectations.